COLUMBUS, Ohio — Heading into the final game of an eight-game road trip, one that began with a 10-6 win over Ohio State on Jan. 16, at Value City Arena, No. 15 Michigan was looking for the same offensive firepower that was missing the previous weekend after being swept in Minnesota.
Ohio State netminder Christian Frey slabbed some concrete on some bricks, laid them in front of his net to dry, and there they remained for two hours and fifteen minutes on a cold February night in central Ohio, helping his team achieve a 5-3 victory over their archrival – the first for OSU over U of M since Nov. 2011.
The Wolverines (16-11-0, 8-5-0-0 B1G) got on the board 3:52 into the opening period when Dylan Larkin picked up a loose puck near the hash mark on the right-hand side of the ice and walked to the net untouched before making a move and beating Frey past the right pad for his 11th goal this season.
The Buckeyes (9-16-2, 4-9-0-0 B1G) responded just 3:34 later when Nicholas Jones fed Matt Johnson in the slot with a pass from the corner. Johnson proceeded to slide it through the five-hole of Steve Racine for his 11th goal on the campaign.
Racine stopped 27 shots on the evening.
Goal No. 12 for Johnson came later in the period as senior captain Tanner Fritz chipped a puck from behind the net to a streaking Johnson, who made a quick move before burying the puck top-shelf past the glove of Racine.
The Maize and Blue came out with a purpose in the middle period and their persistence paid off in the form of Zach Hyman potting his team-leading 17th goal with 15:15 left in the second.
A three-on-two opportunity for the Buckeyes quickly turned into a two-on-one with Hyman leading the charge from the left side of the ice as he walked into the high slot and snapped a laser beam high over the glove of Frey to tie the game at two.
After the game, Hyman was not pleased with his team’s defensive effort.
“They scored four five-on-five goals,” Hyman said. “If you can’t play defense, you’re not going to win games. We’re not going to be able to score six goals every game.”
Frey ended up with 36 saves on 39 shots, keeping Michigan’s No. 1-ranked offense at bay for a majority of the night, giving his team the opportunity to pull off the upset.
“I think he’s been that way this whole second half,” said OSU coach Steve Rohlik. “He’s literally giving us a chance. He looks comfortable, confident. He made some great saves for us tonight. He’s giving us a chance in every game he’s been in right now. If we can go out there and chip away and score five goals, I like our chances.”
Fritz fired back less than three minutes later, taking a misfired shot off the stick of Johnson and beating Racine past the blocker to not only give the Scarlet and Gray the lead back, but also notching his 100th career point in the process.
The two rivals battled things out for 17 hard-fought minutes in the third when Darik Angeli seemed to put the game on ice with his fifth goal of the season with 2:05 to play.
Michigan would not go back to Ann Arbor quietly. With the Wolverine net empty, Tyler Motte lit the lamp for the eighth time this year, putting his team back within a goal with 1:29 remaining.
The majority of 6,896 inside the arena could breathe a lot easier when Nick Schilkey finished the scoring and the opposition with an empty-net goal with 35 seconds left.
For Michigan, it’s back to the drawing board after three straight losses and back to the confines of Yost Ice Arena.
Playing catch-up all night was not on Wolverines’ coach Red Berenson’s agenda.
“They’re a dangerous team,” Berenson said. “They had the lead after one, they had the lead after two and we couldn’t quite catch up. It was that kind of game. That doesn’t play into our strength.”
For Rohlik, this is a step in the right direction for what has been a disappointing and injury-plagued season.
“For where we’re at, there’s no question that this is the best win for us all year,” Rohlik said. “When you look at it, and you don’t win as many games as you’d like to, it can go one of two directions. I think we had some good talks this week as a team. We put in the best week of practice and I think the results speak for themselves. If you want to win on Friday and Saturday, you’ve gotta be prepared and I think our guys prepared themselves this week.”
